Luke is Freezing
by TheRealJules
Summary: Short bit about the ending of the worst episode in the series, Partings.
1. Luke Melted

**Welcome to the wonderful world of Jules' tiny one shots! I've seen the whole series like eleventy nine times but I still haven't got a handle on the pace, and so I practice. Enjoy! **

"Luke… I slept with Christopher." The excitement, the… readiness, that he had been feeling just… froze. She froze. _Lorelai _froze. In time and space, she froze. Physically, she froze. His love froze. His life, it froze. The tear in her eye froze.

And in that moment, the hatred towards his mortal enemy, it froze. It came as a surprise to him that he wasn't seething with rage. Instead of blind, raging anger, he felt as if all 206 bones in his body were shaking, splintering, cracking, and, yes, freezing. It was all he could do not to fall to his knees in front of her. He turned, and ran, and slammed the door of his car as hard as he could. He peeled out of her driveway, only slowing for one thing: a glance back at the life he, she, they, could have had. That she'd- that _he,_ had thrown away. Seeing her melt down onto their patio steps, shaking, with her head in her hands, almost had him turning around. But the bones, they kept splintering, and time kept freezing, and his heart kept breaking.

The anger froze.

The sadness froze.

Until all that was left, was nothing.


	2. Luke Freezing

**ayyo chapter two. I had like a thousand word thing all lined up but alas, my laptop died and it's dead now. **

Ten years earlier, if asked, Luke would have told you that he didn't see himself as a 'feelings' guy. He didn't talk a lot, hated spirit of any kind, and he preferred to be left alone than brought down by other, more naive, people. Rachel had taken him and broken him, several times over, and he was done with _people. "_Who needs 'em," he would ask himself while polishing off the second beer of the night. "All they ever do is hurt themselves and others."

Lorelai Gilmore was as naive as they come. When he met her, he was shocked to learn she was a twenty-something, just younger than him. For someone who drank so much coffee, she sure looked like a college student. He didn't know much about her for several weeks outside her order, but when someone becomes a daily fixture at your place of business you get to know them. He learned of her daughter in the second monthof their friendship. Lorelai brought her to the diner, and Luke met her and fell in love with her in the same day. He argued with her about the juxtaposition of the coffee mugs to the cupboard. Within the month, he had gotten new mugs.

And that was the start of it. That was the start of Luke growing his heart back, after his mother's death, his father's death, Rachel's leaving, et cetera, meeting that great beam of light that was Rory Gilmore, and, by extension, getting to know her mother. The Gilmore Girls slower became a part of his daily life, and in a way, his pets. They were like that, in that someone had to feed them, and he owned a diner. He learned of their situation, financial and otherwise, and slowly, their bills at the diner vanished. For a good long while, they didn't pay him anything. And he didn't notice. He didn't notice for a long time that that Gilmore Girls had worked their way into his previously frozen heart.

He had her to blame. For everything. This time, everything was her fault. She ranted to him about it herself, when you feel bad about a boy or a relationship going south, you eat a gallon of Chunky Monkey and sit on the couch. You do not go out and sleep with your ex.

_Him. _Luke's foot pressed harder on the accelerator as, once again, he pictured what went on the night before. If Christopher Hayden were to jump out into the road like a deer during hunting season, Luke would've had no reservations of running him over like the piece of sidewalk scum he is.

He doesn't know where he's going, just that he has to go anywhere but here. Couldn't go fishing- he'd think of teaching Lorelai how to fish. Couldn't go camping- he'd think of the time Lorelai made him go camping; what was she doing all alone then?

The Gilmore Girls were, essentially, an isolated incident. Luke had never cared so much for two people in the whole world, outside of family. They melted him.

And now she froze him up again.

Now, he'd never melt again.


End file.
